Fallout: Survival of the fittest
by dragonclaw1000
Summary: It's been two years since the Lone wanderer activated the purifier, and it has affected the denizens of the Capital wasteland in many ways. Ash is a survivor living in the ruins of DC, but when his geographical knowledge is used to force him along with a group to get to a civilization that may or may not exist, his survival skills will be put to the ultimate test.
1. One of those days

Hello there man/woman/fishtank with arms. My name is DragonClaw (don't ask) and I enjoy the Fallout series. I've written many story's on the series and NONE of them have been finished. So I decided to start writing again during the busiest time of my life since that sounds like the sharpest thing to do! anyway I'll do my best to update this story and hope to god you enjoy it.

(I also apologise for any punctuational errors. I'm silly like that)

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**Fallout: Survival of the fittest**

Chapter 1: One of those days

Ash leaned against the long decayed rust bucket of a car. The blaring DC sun shone down on his back, his leather armour done nothing to keep him cool. Ash was flicking a lighter attempting in vain to ignite a flame, with every loose spark and failed ignition he gave a grunt of annoyance and his technique became more sloppy.

"C'mon you son of a... Ah screw it!" Ash said in frustration, throwing the lighter against the wall of a long collapsed building. He leaned further against the car, folding his arms in a huff and ignoring the pool of sweat that was beginning to form on his forehead.

Then there was a clang of metal against the ground.

In a flash, Ash was on his feet with his reliable yet somewhat weathered 10mm pistol. He was pointing in the nearby alleyways and any other dark crevice or opening to a derelict building he could find. Feral ghoul attacks had been more frequent in the city that Ash scavenged in and he'd rather not have to waste precious ammo on another nest of them.

The sound came again. Ash was grim faced and held his pistol tighter in both hands, he began advancing to where he traced the sound to be coming from.

The alleyway was obscenely dark due to the half collapsed building which seemed to block out the sky itself from any living creature. The sound came once more but much more prominent this time. Ash leaned against the dumpster and hazard that what ever was making that sound had taken refuge in here. He slowly placed his hands on the left led and gripped his pistol tighter with his free hand. In an instant he threw the lid open and aimed his gun professionally into the abyss.

Nothing. Not even a trace of life came from the dark, dingy, urine soaked alley. "Fuckin rats" Ash muttered with a relieved sigh.

The feral Ghoul pounced on Ash when he turned around and with a guttural yell knocked both of them to the floor. Ash tried pushing the Ghoul off but was taken by surprise and countering was far to late, the butt of his gun was being used to push the Ghouls jaw upwards and was the only thing keeping the ghoul from sinking his yellow broken teeth into Ash's neck.

"FUCK. OFF!" Ash yelled and barely managed to maneuver his feet onto the ghouls chest and push the mutant off. The Ghoul staggered to it's feet a bit and let out another sound that was vaguely reminiscent of annoyance. Before it could charge to try again a blast of shrapnel rocketed through it's forehead and escaped out the back of it's skull. Ash blew the smoke off his gun and struggled to his feet.

He looked down and was treated to an angry gash that cut through his patchwork armour "son of a bitch" he said between gasps of air, both from fear and adrenaline. Ash looked at the husk that had once been his attacker and gave it a glob of spit on it's lifeless body to remember him by.

He began limping to the end of the alley with a quicker pace, hoping to clear the area before anything else got here.

**2 hours later: Ash's camp**

It was nearing sunset and Ash was still muttering angrily to himself. He needn't fear attack here since it was on top of one of the buildings and he retracted the ladder he used to scale it every time he was home, Climbing said ladder with one good leg however proved to be problematic and had forced Ash to use most of his medical supply's to clean, disinfect and bandage the wound.

Ash sighed and wiped his eyes with his gloved hand. He stared at the city of DC which now seemed so quiet and peaceful with the setting sun as a backdrop, despite being anything but. Ash was what was locally called a "city dweller" people who rarely interact with the settlements or community's and instead lived in the ruined city's or town's, they were generally seen as "stupid" or "un-civilized" due to their xenophobic nature and tendency to kill survivors over the lowliest peace of equipment or food.

Ash had been raised by a group of survivors who stayed on the roof of an apartment complex and were quite well off but they had died a long time ago, Ash had been alone ever since. He was raised by that and taught how to scavenge for anything left over, handle a gun and even basic first aid. He didn't know his parents but it was a safe bet they were dead as well, or simply left him to die rather than deal with the hardships of having a child in armageddon.

The sun was nearly gone and the moon was ascending, bringing the creatures of the nights out to play and hunt for any wounded or warm blooded prey. Ash as a child used to cry silently as he heard Super mutants yell and cheer on killing humans or anything they could find and Ghouls growl and rip each other apart over a half eaten carcass. Now they were as familiar to him as his own heartbeat. Ash took his previously un-lit cigarette from behind his ear and gently placed it above his dimly lit barrel of fire. It took a few seconds but the cigarette lit and Ash smiled broadly at his inevitably good fortune.

He slowly turned the radio up a tad but once again heard mostly static over Three-Dog's usual happy and exuberant voice, "Stupid radio" he thought to himself, blowing some smoke into the night air "somebody needs to fix that" He toyed around with his other supply's, checking through his medical supply's, tinkering with his radio, taking a sip of water etc.

And then said radio crackled to life, at first the voice was faint but then gradually grew clearer and clearer.

"Hey dumbass" a gruff male voice came from the radio. Ash looked around dumbfounded for where however had his frequency was "Yeah, you on the roof asshole" the voice so kindly added.

Ash slowly un-holstered his pistol, still with a dumbfounded look "I wouldn't try that buddy, my partner's got her scope on your forehead. Now lower that ladder of yours and you'll get to keep your head attached to your neck"

Ash looked glanced around the rooftops and finally saw a figure not too far from his home with a sniper rifle trained on him, she waved slightly to add insult to possible lifelong injury.

Ash flipped her off as he kicked the ladder down.


	2. The bargain

Hey'o it's me again. That one guy. I recently finished up the last of my exams and now have quite a bit of time off. Use that time to go outside? *pfft* not bloody likely. Any-who we have a lovely review to respond to and another chapter for you wonderful people.

Please continue to send me reviews. It's how I get my jollies.

Bares his teeth: Thank you sir. I hope to give you more of Ash's character down to the road

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Chapter two: The bargain

Ash continued to lock eyes with the sniper as the ladder was placed up-right on the wall for this intruder to enter his home. He never lowered eye contact and never rid his face of that frown that told her he'd kill her the first chance he could get.

"This is a nice place you got here. I mean it's a pretty good way to get your skull blown in half but beyond that it's... Cozy" The intruder was a young well-built man in olive drab combat armour, though it seemed to have many modifications made to it, the left breast place was now a metal plate held by a sling, both arms were shielded with steel bracers that looked like they belonged to a car. His eyes were covered by a pair of goggles which was fairly common to avoid sandstorms in the wastes so Ash deduced that he and probably his acquaintance were travelers. He was tall and toned with ashen blonde hair and a goatee, his accomplice was probably his wife or girlfriend.

"Jess, it's safe. Head out now but keep your head down, god knows whats lurking in the shadows" The sniper nodded and stood up, disappearing into the shadows of the building. Ash was about to grab for his gun but noticed the intruder pointing a revolver at him and shaking his head.

"You don't seem to learn from past mistakes do you?" the intruder said sarcastically

"Fuck you" Ash replied stoically glaring daggers at the man he was imagining killing in multiple different ways.

"pfft, friendly aint'cha?" the man said taking a piece of gum from his pocket and flicking it in his mouth without a care in the world.

"No seriously. Fuck you" Ash replied simply.

"Heh. Look we ain't here to steal nothin so you don't got that to worry about. My names Cal" Cal extended his hand in mock friendship whilst still pointing the revolver at Ash's stomach.

Ash stared at him which seemed to make Cal smile more and thusly infuriating Ash inside, but he managed to keep his cool. Travellers could be skittish and if Ash acted out in any way there was a good chance he'd be shot.

Heavy footed stomps began coming from the bottom of the ladder. Ash instinctively put his hand on top of his holstered his pistol but a stern stare from Cal forced him to reluctantly release his grip. Cal however didn't seem to optimistic and kept his eyes fixated to the ladder whilst still keeping his gun trained on Ash.

A head bobbed up from the side of the building which elicited a sigh of relief from Cal and a grunt from Ash as he recognized her as the sniper. He'd hoped she would've been caught or at least hindered by something but she looked un-harmed.

"Looks like you two really hit it off" the woman said pulling herself up to her feet and un-slinging her rifle from her back.

"He's a nice guy. I think we may have made a family friend" Cal replied with an arrogant grin.

"So you're siblings then?" Ash said stoically, attempting to get them talking and maybe wrestle the rifle out of the girls hands, but she kept her distance from him for now.

"No shit Sherlock" the woman replied taking off her helmet and biker goggles, revealing long ashen blonde hair like her brother and pale green eyes.

She looked him up and down and frowned slightly, she turned to her brother and mouthed something which elicited a moan from him "We've walked for hours" and "he could be our chance" were common mutterings Ash could make out. They turned and stared at Ash for a moment as if judging him.

"You know your way around the city yeah?" Cal said without much trace of arrogance or sarcasm his earlier statements carried. Ash decided to knock him down a peg.

"I've been living in it genius" Ash said with the slightest ghost of a smile. Cal frowned and his sister rolled her eyes. All of a sudden they lowered their guns.

"We'll be frank" the sister replied, clearly being the more mature of the two "my names Jess and you've already met Cal. We need a guide" she said giving Ash a steely gaze.

There was a long silence.

"Fuck off" Ash said finally and now with a much more defined tone of aggression in his voice.

"You'd rather die huh?" Cal said just as angrily pointing his gun at Ash and having Jess forcibly pulling his arm back down.

"We don't have time for this idiot!" she hissed at her brother "listen we just need to get to a certain point in the city and we promise not only will we leave you alone, you'll get quite the reward" This raised the eyebrow of both Ash and Cal.

"What are we talking here?" Ash said suddenly adopting a much calmer tone.

Jess sighed glad to not have another fight "you see this rifle?" she said outstretching her sniper rifle "you can have something like this, high-powered rifles, pistols, combat knives and enough ammo to keep you stocked for quite some time"

Ash folded his arms and stared at both of them for a moment "where do you need to go?" he said quietly. The deal was good, and he was running low on supplies as of late.

"Takoma park" she muttered. They were somewhere near Jury street, Takoma was blocked by wreckages, super mutant camps, Brotherhood and mutant battle zones, Ghoul infested nests and anything else that was remotely aggressive.

"Look Jess he's not gonna-" Cal was cut off.

"I'll do it" Ash said with a shrug "add some food and medical supplies to that reward and maybe a vehicle to get back then I'll take you the best routes possible"

Jess looked at Cal. Cal looked at Jess. They went back into muttering to each other, Ash could barely hear them this time and all he could pick up was something about being able to get the parts for a bike at a nearby garage.

Cal sighed and nodded "done. But we get to camp here for the night"

Ash walked off back to the fire and stomped on his half smoked cigarette "make yourself at home then. Mi casa, su casa" he said holding his arms out in exaggeration.

Cal smirked and moved over to the un-opened bottles of beer. Ash didn't care since he'd be able to pick up supplies on the journey. Jess breathed another sigh of relief and sat down, crossing her legs and disassembling her rifle then cleaning and sorting the parts.

Ash stared at small puddle of water that came from the rain the night before. His grim-faced reflection stared back up at him. With his long-ish jet black hair, grizzled 5 'o clock shadow and dull lifeless gray eyes he seemed to stick out as some sort of wild man leading a group of purists right out of hell.

"Well then" he said clapping his hands together "who wants rat?".


	3. Long road ahead

It's me again. Thought you ditched me at that totally awesome house party? ha! you'll never get rid of moi. Friends forever.

Please. Continue sending reviews they make me tingly inside (preferably on the latest chapter so things don't get too confusing)

**Sunset Sarsaparilla**: I'm glad you like Ash, I'll do my best to look for any errors in the future (and this chapter) thanks very much for the heads up. I love the name by the way.

**Bares his teeth: **Glad to see you still like it. And yes I plan on giving all the characters some flaw or something to keep them human in post apocalyptia

**Invader:** I assure you I'm not. The story is all planned out however I do add some details such as the cigarette to make the world feel more alive. I'll admit however these can be implemented better. If you have some suggestions I'd love to hear them.

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Chapter three: Long road ahead

The boy frowned and closed one eye, he brought the rifle up to his face and took a sharp breath. The monster stood before him awaiting the boy's move. The boy couldn't hold the rifle properly straight due to its size but got it high enough to get a clear shot of the monster.

The boy gritted his teeth and squeezed the trigger. The blast from the barrel of the rifle left a painful ringing in both his ears and the resulting force knocked him back a few steps but he managed to keep his footing. He dropped the rifle from surprise of the sheer force and noise it made however the bullet had thankfully managed to strike its target.

The food can flew off the rickety wooden table and rolled around the sand for a moment before stopping harmlessly albeit with a bullet sized hole on its lower half.

"Not bad Ash" a grizzled and greying man said, he wore a soiled eyepatch over his left eye with some combat trousers, a black shirt and green jacket with the sleeves rolled up to fight the heat "we might need to find you some earplugs for starters though. Don't worry kid, you get used to it. We'll be doing lots more training sessions though, need to help you bag something more threatening then blamco mac and cheese cans" the man added with a hearty chuckle.

He ruffled Ash's dirty black hair with a warm smile, Ash looked up with a smirk under his dirt traced face and a small cut on his cheek that seemed to have long healed but the red mark was still present.

"I tell ya Ash" the man said leaning back on the car hood and throwing Ash a cold bottle of Nuka cola "ya keep this up. We'll make a dweller out 'o you yet".

"I'm looking forward to it Glenn" Ash said jumping up to sit next to him "maybe I'll be as good as you some day" Ash added with a toothy grin.

"we'll see kid" Glenn said chuckling as he clinked his beer bottle with Ash's cola "we'll see"

**Early afternoon: Ash's camp**

Ash rubbed his eyes in pain "christ sake" he muttered in annoyance. The downside of living on top of a building was that the sun shone right on your face every morning, shelter didn't help much as it was like being in a hotbox. He struggled up to his ass and sat on the dirty and slashed mattress with a yawn.

"Mornin' tall dark and ugly" the now already irritating voice of Cal said. He was sitting on a chair with his sister's rifle in hand where he'd slept most of the night to make sure Ash didn't try to kill him in his sleep. He was smarter than Ash gave him credit for.

"Fuck off" Ash said quietly as he continued to rub his eyes and then grab a bottle of water to cool himself off with.

"Are you crabby in the morning or is this what we've to expect" Cal said chuckling and standing up. He stretched a little and gave out a yawn of his own, his goggles resting above his eyes and now Ash could clearly see he had the same pale green eyes as Jess did, albeit with heavy bags under them. More than likely this was his first rest in a while.

Ash got to his feet and looked over to see Jess awake and alert, packing up bottles of aqua pura, ammo, food cans and other provisions. She glanced over at him for a moment and smiled.

"Good your up" She said brightly as if the tension of last night never happened "I told Cal to let you sleep. Need you bright and alert".

Ash glared at her with weary eyes.

"She never offers me the same damn courtesy so enjoy it cityman" Cal added tossing the rifle to Jess and unholstering his 9mm.

Ash rolled his eyes and walked over to a crate that used to hold a large quantity of sugar bombs but had since been emptied out. He flipped it over so the flat end was sticking up and placed a yellow weathered piece of paper with some hasty looking scribbles on it.

"Is that a map? did you draw that thing without using your arms or something?" Cal said raising his eyebrow and getting a light punch to the arm from Jess.

Ignoring him Ash looked over the map, editing some drawings or scribbling over them entirely. He frowned a bit and sighed creating a long line past drawings with skull and crossbones, mines and something that vaguely looked like a wreckage. The line reached the end of the paper and Ash made an oval at the end writing 'Takoma park'.

"Alright" Ash said clapping his hands together "sit down and shut up" Jess folded her arms and glared at Ash defiantly whilst Cal seemed to shrug and nonchalantly lay back on a green dirty lounge chair "So. We're here" he said motioning around Jury street metro station with his finger "and Takoma is all the way over here" he added pointing to the right hand edge of the map.

(interactive portion of the story, You can follow their journey with this . )

"We'll have to cross through to Megaton, probably through the metro station or as the Dwellers here call it "the deep road" and then succeeding that. We'll have to cross over the river and then access the Farragut west metro station. Past DC, and then over to Vernon square whereupon it should hopefully be a straight shot to Takoma" Ash nodded slightly and smirked "questions?".

"Yeah uh, first off that's fucking insane. Second don't dwellers stay in once place? how do you know all of this" Cal said with a look of slight anxiety on his face.

"Well first off quit being a bitch" Ash said smirking "and second Dwellers keep a map of as much as DC as possible should they ever need to move if things get to bad, we share locations and cautions with any travelling Dwellers we find should they be friendly. Since I've grown up as one and started in a large group already I've amassed quite the collection. You lucked out on a guide".

Cal was about to speak up before Jess took a step forward grabbed Ash's hand and shook it with a smile "that's great with your local knowledge and know how we'll get there in no time at all".

"Yeah..." Ash said forcibly taking his hand away from Jess's "But before I take you anywhere I need to know. Why do you want to go all the way to Takoma?".

The siblings looked apprehensively at each other for a second "would you believe us if we said they had working electronics and a whole fort to themselves?" Cal asked with a wain smile.

"No" Ash said bluntly folding up the map and placing it in his pack.

"Well then we have family there. That's all you need to know" Jess said defensively with a scowl.

"No more questions then" Ash said zipping up his back and slinging it around his shoulder "now comes the fun part".

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Author's notes: I apologise for how dialogue heavy this got but I swear the next chapter will be far longer with much more action and excitement so if this felt like filler again I'm sorry. Also since I'm kind of enjoying the Dweller's I'd be happy to have Ash explain a bit more about them as well as his back story if anyone is interested.

See ya next chapter. And remember to review pls. I'll let you pick the radio station.


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